Twitter is a great tool and it's fairly basic but certainly powerful.
Since Twitter came on the scene there have been many tools developed to supplement your Twitter experience.
There are tools that alert you of particular keywords being used, alert you if your username or company is mentioned in a tweet, basically tools that help enhance your Twitter experience and help you stay connected to your community.
If you are just starting out on Twitter you really don't need to worry about any supplementary tools but you'll need to focus more on establishing an account and creating a following.
We'll help you with both of these tasks to help ease your transition into Twitter.
You'll begin by completing the registration form.
A decision needs to be made as to whether this is a personal account or for business/branding.
This is important because if it's for your business you'll want to take your business name into consideration as your Twitter username.
It would be a big mistake down the road if you created an irrelevant relationship between your username and business name.
It's important for the future that people are able to search your business name and find your Twitter account.
If you're username is "xyz123" but your business name is "skyline widgets" it may be difficult for people to find your account on Twitter.
See where we're headed with this? So take this into consideration when you first establish your account and keep in mind that it's common to have multiple accounts so if you want to keep your business and personal life separate, by all means do so.
Once your account is set up you should take some time to browse around and find established Twitter users to follow.
It's certainly beneficial to follow people in your industry or line of work but at this point if you see you're favorite artist or athlete or whomever, follow them and get a feel for how they are interacting with their fans.
Once you start to follow people you will notice people following you.
After you get a feel for the process of "tweeting" you'll be ready to write your first tweet.
In case you didn't know, Twitter is a micro blogging tool that only allows you to use 140 characters or less for a single tweet.
On your homepage you'll notice a white box at the top that says "What's happening?".
This is where you can tell the world about what is going on in your life.
If you've established an account focused on your business this is where you can introduce your business, product or services.
It's where you can tell your followers you "just had a great meeting, we made the sale" or "just had a great workout!".
The space is open to what is on your mind...
to some extent! Once you've introduced yourself or your company and have gotten your first tweets out of the way, you'll want to find people in your industry to see what they are doing and follow them.
When you follow an established tweeter you'll be shown on their followers list, potentially opening the door to people who will follow you.
At the very least you'll find others to follow and keep up with the latest in your industry.
Followers will come with time but it's your job to continue with your tweets and give updates on your business.
You'll want to continue to add to your time line to increase your odds of exposure.
The biggest thing to remember is that you don't always want to be in "sell mode".
Twitter is a tool you can use to engage your community, inbound marketing, to give advice to others and receive advice in exchange.
It's a way to keep your customers in the loop with the latest from your business and expose them to discounts or affiliate offers.
There are many uses for Twitter but always remember to engage your community and don't make the conversation one way.
Reply to a tweet or answer a question from someone you are following or one of your followers.
When you give genuine advice it's an opportunity to expose your account and you may see some new followers.
If you have valuable information to give you should have no problems creating a following.
Once you've got the Twitter basics down, look to start promoting your website or blog.
Let your followers know when you've released a new blog post or you have a new product you want to share.
Post a link in your tweet to let people know where to go to find this information.
Remember you only have 140 characters so be sure to use your words wisely when inserting a link.
We can talk about URL shorteners on a later date but something like "just released this article surround Donovan McNabb trade rumors" and then you can proceed to insert the link to your article.
This is a great way to expose your website, blog or article and hopefully drive some traffic to the source.
When you become more familiar with this process it will enable you to create action tweets and link to your website or blog.
Get people to subscribe to your newsletter or mailing list.
Let them in on specials surrounding your business.
Combine your Facebook account or other social media marketing accounts you use to broaden your approach.
Twitter can very beneficial and fun.
You'll find you have to pull yourself away from Twitter but in the beginning stages you'll want to do a lot of searching to get a feel for the different ways people use and search Twitter.
Hopefully with some persistence Twitter will be beneficial to your online marketing success.